Today the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development officially submitted eight sites in Loudoun County for the General Services Administration to consider in its quest to find a new FBI headquarters location. The Loudoun sites are presented in the county’s response to the GSA’s Request for Information.

The sites are located on or near the future path of the Silver Line metro rail, in an area that reaches west from Washington-Dulles International Airport to the last Loudoun station in Ashburn, VA.

“Loudoun offers not one or two, but at least eight qualified sites for an FBI headquarters,” said Scott York, chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. “These greenfield sites offer the lowest cost per square foot, and the highest flexibility, of any sites under consideration for the new FBI headquarters.”

Loudoun is the only county along the 23-mile Silver Line route with greenfield opportunities. The new FBI site will require at least 40-55 acres for a 2.1 million square-foot facility for 11,000 employees. Loudoun has more than 1,400 acres of available land near the metro rail route.

“Obsolete is not an option when it comes to building a new FBI headquarters.” said Supervisor Matt Letourneau, chairman of the Board's Economic Development Committee. “The build-to-suit opportunities available in Loudoun County offer flexibility and future expansion capabilities that simply aren’t possible by retrofitting an existing facility or by building in a more constrained location. Building to suit offers better cost efficiency and delivers the highest return on investment to the GSA, the FBI and taxpayers.”

“Another important benefit of building-to-suite is viability,” explained Loudoun County Business Development Officer Jim Herbert. “The new FBI headquarters must be viable beyond the next 30 or 40 years. It must have enough acreage to provide security, flexibility and sustainability for the foreseeable future.”

In explaining the FBI’s technology needs, Herbert noted that Loudoun County is D.C.’s technology corridor, home to the largest number of data centers on the East Coast. Up to 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic flows through Loudoun data centers every day.